Infestation
by Experiment 282
Summary: Ten since since he'd seen Amy & her family go to help colonize a new planet. They slowly lose contact, So Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Rouge leave to investigate and find her, and find things are far worse than imagined when they arrive. SonAmy, KnuxRouge.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1 Lift off**

It'd been ten years since he'd last seen Amy Rose. She'd gone on a long journey to the planet Levia for the new colony with her family. It originally was a two year journey in Cryosleep, then establish the colony in a fertile part of the planet. Many years of research and the technology boom that occurred in the twenty first century, that life began to evolve and depend themselves on machines. Machines that made lives easier, machines that entertained...even the machines that made other machines. Her father was a Scientist involved in special studies and was invited to Levia himself. Amy was very reluctant to leave, from that day the Spaceship "The Icarus" was departing. Sonic himself was stunned she was going so soon, annoyed her parents didn't give her the choice to stay. Tears ran down her cheeks as she said good bye to many of her friends, the minutes-long hug with her best friend Cream and thanks for their blessed presence in her life. When it came to Sonic, it mostly staring into each others eyes. More tears flowed for him more than anyone. She promised that she would send him 'Digital Postcards', despite that Sonic never owned a computer in his entire life, Amy left it to Tails and Cream to deal with it. Amy wrapped her arms around him and cried, regretting she might never see him again. Sonic smiled, placing his hand on her shoulder. He was never one to doubt the possibility of seeing each other, since it wouldn't be the only ship heading towards the planet. Technically true...that kind of tech would be in a greater phase as the years went on.

Their relationship had improved greatly by that point. She was clingy but dedicated to the cause, and often joined in their constant rendezvous with Eggman. Obsession still holding on strong but at least there was a kind of bond between them. A friendly connection that he held between himself, Tails and Knuckles as well. Every day he'd take a short stop over at Central City to get himself a Chili Dog, wave to Amy as she shopped on the streets and occasionally have lunch together as good friends. Life was alright, and both was satisfied with what they had.

It changed one day, when she became a bit distant with her conversations, preferring to listen to Sonic's crazy adventures than speak about herself like she usually did. She'd play around with a packet of sugar reserved for ones tea or coffee and be straight faced. Sonic was too boastful to notice until he caught on when she didn't come to lunch their usual time, when he waited for at least ten minutes (due to his impatience) and tried to seek her out. He remembered where she lived and had a visit to her home. The look on her face when he opened the door was not one of surprise, but of sadness. Taking him into her living room, he met up with her parents, her scientist father and her voluptuous mother. He shook hands with both, smiled as they introduced each other. He could see Amy's smiling mask above her cracked spirit, puzzling him greatly.

She announced she had news of moving to a new planet with her father. The opportunity was rare and only few people could head over there for the first colonization of this brave new world upon the near-completed construction of the Icarus. Amy's father studied biology and was one of the top biologists of his time, having discovered the infamous Dire Strain Virus, often killing animals, Dr. Rose desperate to find a cure. Sonic congratulated them with a big smile, and shifted their impression by complementing on their daughters beauty, which made her blush slightly, but barely lifting her disguised mood. He couldn't figure out what was troubling her. But he thoroughly enjoyed talking with her parents. Ms. Rose was eager to get packing, not sure of what to pack. She was a kind, pink furred Hedgehog with long quills and a simple black dress, wearing a pearl necklace with matching earrings, Dr. Rose wearing a black jacket, his quills a bit shorter than Amy's and wearing large glasses. After all the exciting news, Sonic had to exit the premises in order to pursue his next great outing. Saying his goodbyes, he also noted it was nice to meet them, and wished them good luck on their journey, promising Amy he would speak to her another time.

A week went passed after that, Sonic running through Westopolis, surging passed what seemed to a general GUN exercise. He skidded to a halt and climbed a nearby tree, watching the human operatives train in the heat, for it was a warm day. He laughed at some of them, obviously they were trainees and the next bunch of red shirts to be chucked out onto the battlefield. Always fun.

After that he did a bit of sight seeing on the mountains and smelled the flowers on top. Again, always fun...the divine scents that were the greatest parts of nature in his mind. It wandered over to what this new planet was going to be like for Amy, whether it would have the same kind of plants, trees...mountains and the like. Does it already contain life? It would be good to visit her and scour new lands for him to tread. He knew he had to stay here for the already established worlds sake, for Eggman was just a constant pest that kept crawling out of his humiliation hole, the continuing stomp. It was just a sport in this day and age, challenging GUN to pick up their game.

He visited Tails later on, seeing that he was busy taking down notes on this new planet. Sonic's curiosity got him involved, his head over his fox buddys shoulder as he showed pictures from satellites. The planet was a greenish-brown tinge on it, and was more land than water, meaning it was younger than their own planet at this stage, but it had grown enough to support life, prompting their original mission to make the colony. ARK was merely a testing phase in the stepping stones of ideas but this was a milestone.

Tails would have loved to have gone, but stayed, because he'd prefer to not let Eggman have his way whilst they were not there to protect it. Besides, if Sonic stayed, Tails stayed. That was the bigger picture which made Sonic chuckle. He ruffled his head-fur and said goodbye, on his way to see Knuckles.

The red-headed Echidna hadn't done much in terms of outings and adventures. Simply doing his destiny. Like Tails, he wished could explore the new world himself, for historical sake but, he was stuck on the Island for the rest of his life so was condemned to stay. Sonic already knew this and pitied the Echidna, promising him the fact that something would perk up in his life eventually.

And there it was...the end of another day. But...the sense he received from Amy earlier. He could tell she really didn't want to go, leaving all her great friends behind. A few weeks later went by as the process continued to develop. Their bags were packed and off then went.

When at the Shipyards, he gave a her a bunch of roses and a small plush of himself as goodbye presents. She cried even harder and hugged him tighter in response to the gifts, saying she will never forget any of them.

Then...she was gone. The gigantic space ship lifted out of it's dock, with hundreds of people waving goodbye. The slogan for the Icarus was "For the Future, For the Colony" as it was marked on the side of the space ship, stretching five kilometers long and a kilometer wide, mostly black and grey with golden linings and seven reactors to power it and push it along space. The sun set behind them as they pushed out, leaving the atmosphere shortly. A gust of wind made Sonic's spikes dance as he smiled, then walked off.

"Sayonara, Amy Rose."

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><p>The ten years went by rather quickly. During most of that time she promised she'd kept sending him those digital postcards, saying that the environment was very beautiful when they'd first landed in the open area, and it reminded her of Mazuri. Her father was fascinated by the strange but small bug-like wildlife in the area...obvious evolution hadn't progressed any further, with leaves as wide as a cars and trees as tall as buildings. The sky was a constant biege-green, the water was at least still blue and drinkable. She speak of how Sonic would love exploring it over and over, with numerous mountains and volcanoes spread all over. Their colony was named Redleaps Grace, after one of the Co-founders and original colonists, Dr. Mill Redleap, died during an expedition in one of the highly dense forests due being bitten by one of the venomous bugs, which was dissected to be one of the most dangerous creatures and evidently high evolved.<p>

Three years after the first ship went, a second ship, "The Gentle Bundoora" successfully lifted off and made its way to Levia, raising the population slightly. Again, Sonic noted that it was highly tempting to visit, if not for at the time stopping Dr. Eggman from disguising himself as he tried invading the ship at the time. Amy claimed it was the first time she laughed in a long while, since the situation at Levia was becoming tense. Her father was becoming paranoid after witnessing several of his fellows scientists perish in a series of accidents. He became disenchanted with the place, but studying the planets contents furiously and refusing Amy to leave the Colony's boundaries unless it was to teleport back up to the Icarus, which was floating outside the atmosphere.

Sonic read each postcard as the drama unfolded, discussing it with Tails who became concerned. Sonic put his faith in Amy, claiming that it would most likely a prolonged home sickness, or some rubbish like that. Tails wasn't convinced, but wanted to hold on to hope like Sonic did. Tails was old enough to understand more moral implications, growing each day to learn something new but when it came to matters like this, he relied on instinct. And it told him to worry.

Another five years went by, things seemed to be going a little more smoother on Levia with two more ships "The Courtesy Concorde" and "The Umbrane" were destined to leave at some point with hundreds of more people desperate to see this colony and build their new dreams on it. Gathering from Rouge who'd Tails was surprising visited by there was more military personnel being flown over to enforce laws which had been established, but scuttlebutt was that it was actually looking far worse than what the media had shown. It sounded fishy to Sonic, but he brushed it off as nothing. Tails pointed out that Amy hadn't sent a postcard for a few months now. She started off with sending one once a week, then it became once a month, then once every few months...then...never. Sonic's eyes widened at the prospect of having something happening to Amy, a pit forming in his stomach.

But...again, he held on to the possibility that she was either busy or found herself a new set of friends on Levia, perhaps chasing a new guy. Anything. She would be a tough girl now... actually, now that he thought about it, Amy stopped sending photos several years ago, especially those of herself. She might be married even...successful...yeah. Made him smile...but did absolutely nothing to the pit of his stomach. Holding onto it, he identified it as doubt.

Another month went by, the Courtesy Concorde having left two weeks before and another two weeks until the Umbrane was following suit. Still no word from Amy at all. From Creams own desperation to speak to the Pink Hedgehog and Rouge's reports of several problems occurring from the Colony it only got worse. He stressed over whether he should go or not, bringing in to his fate that he might not come back. Tails was reluctant to answer, as if thinking of doing the same thing.

Rouge organized a secret meeting between several of them in a random Westopolis Alley, with Knuckles in tow, since he wasn't going to let Sonic and Tails do this alone. Sonic became surprised at Knuckles, reminding him that he was in fact going to be away for a long long time. The Echidna's eyes drifted to Rouge, who crossed her arms. Someone needed to stay here, especially for the Master Emerald's protection from batgirl over there.

Soon after, it was settled. Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Rouge would head over there, Rouge being their GUN Correspondent, allowing them access places and details normal citzenry and pilgrims wouldn't be to normally. With her connections and sweet-talking, she convinced the Commander to allow them passage, with Sonic mocking Shadow in the meanwhile that he can be the fastest thing in the world until he gets back. Shadow took it with an apathetic grunt, saying that once Sonic comes back, he better race him to retrieve it. Sonic took it with his usual smirk.

It felt like deja vu, saying good bye to friends and family again. This time, it was their turn to leave. Knuckles stressed over the smallest details to the Chaotix; new temporary Guardians of the Master Emerald. Cream cried this time, although a little older, she was a bit more filled out in accordance to Tails, being the only one who seemed to notice this, despite the cliche'd term he'd used for it. She was losing more friends this time around. But Sonic promised that he'd come back...with Amy when their search for her was done. They hugged, then headed aboard the Umbrane.

Walking on the long ramp, they entered through a large set of doors which scanned them for dangerous items. Sonic and Knuckles got in fine through the metal detector. Poor Tails had to get rid of a few of his useful trinkets, sighing with disappointment. Rouge however, had to surrender a cluster of her precious jewels, which caused Knuckles to face-palm. She went all twinkle-eyed at the guard in charge. He blushed and explained with stutters that it was just general procedure and explained that it would interfere with the Cryopods. Rouge raises eyebrow and stopped flirting, noting on how gems would disturb, with Tails more amazed at the fact that the gems weren't even proper metals, wondering if the machine was an advanced detector, rather than just pointing out certain elements. The Guard went further, saying they could get their items back at the end of the trip, making Rouge smile.

Escorted by a Ship Employee, they were taken to the Cyropod Arena. A tall roofed room that Rouge believed resembled more like a Prison Block than a Dream Paradise. There were hundreds that must have spanned for at least fifty meters, with the possibility of more Arena rooms. Using a nearby elevator, the employee took them to the seventh level out of the twenty levels on each side, the walls a brownish colour with silver rails. Each Cryopod was rectangler, sitting adjacant to one another, the distance a mere thirty centimeters between each other. Their colours a bright light blue with numbers and a black band around it, a square in the middle of it with a few buttons and a card scanner. They slowly opened up with a gusting sound, the door opening upwards. Rouge teased Knuckles by laying in the Cyropod next to him. Sonic laughed as he laid in the one next to Knuckles, with Tails next to Sonic. The Cyropods were initially upright, allowing them to walk straight inside and lean back. The Employee pressed a few buttons inside the case, allowing the case lids to shut slowly. He said goodluck before walking off.

"Wow...we're really doing this!" Said Tails. The orange two-tailed foxes voice was slightly deeper in age, but a bit gravely also. Height increased, wearing a brown leather jacket on top and plastic goggles on his forehead, with jeans.

"Yeah...it's not going to be easy." Commented Rouge. The seductive white bat hadn't changed much, but she wore a total black body suit with new heart décor.

"Never said it was." Knuckles reiterated. The Red Echidna, like the bat, hadn't changed much either, now wearing a cowboy hat, a green shirt and khaki pants.

"Heh...see you all in two years." Sonic said. The Blue Hedgehog was anxious but determined, not going to back out now. He never changed, but was wearing jeans and a black jacet and white shirt.

He only hoped Amy would still be okay when they got there. He held on to hope like a Chaos Emerald.

* * *

><p><strong>Yeah I have had this idea in my head for a while now. Still doing my other fic though. Reviews please :)<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2 Explore**

The two years went by quicker than imagined thanks to the Cryosleep. There wasn't much to tell home about by this point, Sonic realized why she never told him about it in her Digital Postcards. It was just...cold. Very cold. But most of it went away when the case opened itself up. It was very quiet however, the air dreary and moist with dust particles drifting everywhere. Sonic yawned and stretched his limbs as he got out the case. Rubbing his back, he turned to face the others, who's cases hadn't yet opened. In fact, no one else's had opened except his. Sonic rolled his eyes at the prospect his Cryopod must have malfunctioned and they were most likely still in space. Sighing, he went to go see if he could get someone to help him get back in, the decision was wise, since he had no idea how the pods worked. He'd walked out of the Cryochambers, seeing one of the elevators that only took him up and down the different chamber floors, he took it to the ground floor and could see a map of the Umbrane plastered on the wall near the door on the way out. It was useless, since it only showed the first floor out of a possibly twenty, with red dots indicating the main elevator. Nodding, he walked out of the automatic shutter doors and into a cold hallway.

The hallway itself, was long and windy and looked like something he'd seen out of a movie with the generic sealed encasing walls, arcing with metal support bands with some research company he'd never heard of, that had their DNA like red icon splattered everywhere, but he recognized the slogan from what he'd seen on the side of the Starships so far. He was still a bit weary from sleeping for so long...but he kept going until he found the elevator closest to the bridge. If Tails was here he'd explain ship procedures and so forth so he wouldn't be worried about the fact that there was nobody around. But...it was a two year trip...shifts would be constant as to not age too much but still keep an eye on things. The dust lingered, a green tinge coloured the air with a funny smell. Did space normally smell this funny?

He climbed a plethora of steps and grumbled about not being able to run around to properly stretch his legs. There were corridors he ignored that had far worse space smell than others. Most likely another malfunctioned pod or somebody accidentally left their food out. He joked about it for the shift workers. When you're out so long you probably do tend to forget. Like the elevator he just passed. He rubbed his hands with pleasing success and entered through the doors. Damn, which one was the lift to the bridge? He tapped his lip, then pressed level twenty. It was going to test his patience, since twenty levels is pretty high up, and this elevator looked old fashioned tin and some other cheap metals. He wondered if their budgets were tightened for this one...he dreaded how the other ones looked.

The lift creaked, tilting sideways and almost freaking Sonic out. Emphasis on almost. He held to the side bars as a loud bang was heard. His eyes doused at the exit. The almost broken red light on the floor list indicated he was stuck the seventh floor. His instinct was to keep pressing the button but it didn't work. He rolled his eyes.

"Aww geez...does nothing work in this place? No expense spared here!" He complained sarcastically.

He had no choice but to climb on the bar to reach the top shaft above it, knocking the iron lid off and climbing on top of the lift itself. A uneasy soft howling come from above, followed by the cables. It was very dark up there and cowling...cold...very cold. Sonic didn't expect less. He decided to wall jump his way up there, which took a fair while. Another bang sent him flying back down, clanking against the sharp edges of the lift before sliding off. He slapped his hand on the side, desperately clinging on the rusty edge. A forced push helped him back on top where he took his breath back and let his heart rate lower a little. The howling wind did nothing to alleviate matters. He decided to climb up the wire slowly, sliding up the cord and looking up and down consistently. Where he needed to go was pretty high as he kept sliding upwards. Took him a fair while until he heard more bangs up ahead.

"Oh come on...seriously? This is the last time I climb up a elevator shaft!" Sonic complained.

Eventually he shuffled along and found a set of doors. It wasn't the door he was looking for, but from the noises above, he had no choice. He swung himself with the cable back and forth, gathering momentum. After several tries he jumped off and grabbed hold of the small ledge. This was going to be difficult. He groaned under his own weight as pushed upwards, digging his fingers into the space between the sliding doors. The door hardly moved as he tried to pull it open, leading for small cries for help. No one was around still. No floor had anyone on it, much to Sonic's dismay. He tried pulling it open again, this time he was met with small success, the door prying open slightly. Progress...finally.

This hurt with one hand as his fingers threatened to snap under the pressure, having to hold his breath as he forced the door to open slowly, but giving him enough space to squeeze himself through. Pushing forward, he slid through the crack and rolled forward out of the shaft, the doors sliding shut. He laid on the floor for a moment to gather strength before standing back up and dusting himself down.

This new floor had the same design as the one he was on. On the nearby black wall was embedded thirteen. How ironic, but Sonic didn't want to believe in the bad luck at this point. As long as he could get contact with someone in charge it was going to be fine. But...that smell...it came back worse than ever. Sonic rolled his eyes and searched around for the flight of stairs, speeding around the darkened corridors and hallways. Funnily enough, no toilets, bathrooms or kitchens, only supply cupboards for emergency purposes were spread across this floor.

He was glad to be running again, as he was warming up from sleep. He couldn't imagine what it would have been like being in such isolation. However, he currently wasn't far from it. What began to make him lose his patience was the lack of foreseeable stairs. What a waste of time and energy. He must have ran around in the circles numbering in the hundreds. Still nothing to see. There had to be.

In quick time, his mind allowed him to think about possible ways to head upwards. A hatch perhaps? A ladder of sorts? Logically, in this day and age and especially within this ship stairs weren't practical enough, when taking into consideration on what kind of expedition it was. Hardly anyone would use them, even the low amounts of staff. This was going to get critical if Sonic didn't keep his cool. Well, of course he would. Be more annoyed but still. Again he scanned around. Couldn't find much. No maps either to lead him. It was obvious no one was allowed on this level to begin with.

Hollow echoes bounced off walls, giving Sonic slight chills again. But at the same time he looked up, seeing a white square surrounded with black and white stripes, and the corresponding ladder of course. Perfect. Why didn't he see this as he was running around? His one track mind had been so focused on apparent stair cases, he didn't think of it until he'd stopped to have a moment.

He climbed up the ladder, and pushed the hatch open. There was a long climb up a vertical tunnel. This had to be some kind of safety procedure, as he slunked his way up, minor pathetic claustrophobia kicking in. Some meters later, he had gotten onto the next floor.

This floor...fourteen. He still had a ways to go until he reached the Bridge. But at least this floor had a map on it. His eyes zoomed across, absorbing the details. This was just another supplies level, but it had rooms for the crew to move around and check the status of the passengers on board, as well as crucial parts to the ship. However, you'd hardly call it clean, since dust riddled the air with the stale smell about. It was taking them a few years of course to get to the next planet. He walked around the black rubber floors and white walls, some lights flickering and snapping off and on. This indeed was poor maintenance. He could hear parts of the ship groaning, metals either expanding or contracting or what ever, Sonic was not a scientist, and just thought it more creepy. But somebody else had to be on board. All he had to do was find one member of the crew and he'd be on his way for some answers.

His thoughts dwelled on how Amy was being. His deep concern for his friend suddenly not keeping contact became an oddity that Sonic couldn't dwell about. Even Tails and Cream noted the strange occurrence, since Amy had been obsessed with communicating with her friends. She really didn't want to leave, but at the heart of it, she wasn't old enough to stay on her own as her parents forced her to attend.

Over the years, Sonic did his usual work. Run. Eat Chili Dogs, Defeat Eggman. That sort of everyday business that became the cycle of his own adventures. He felt older, a little wiser these past...eight to ten years. But nothing much had changed. Not really. Tails had the hots for Cream of all people. Sonic chuckled as Tails first inquired about his sudden crush to her. After her 13th birthday, she had grown out somewhat, as girls do. Sonic remembered her sweet innocent beauty, but her mother made sure she wasn't going to hang around with the scantly clothed girls, drinking under the age and all kinds of teenage nonsense that Cream herself had confided in Sonic for. She claimed that Sonic was the inspiration for the goodness within, and restricted herself to her own studies, saying that it was her goal to make her mother proud.

Knuckles...was Knuckles. His dance with Rouge was never ending consisting of flames and sparks from their fueling personalities. But it amused Sonic just as much, like a bad soap opera. Sonic teased about their tension, because pissing Knuckles off over the most petty of insults could often be more fun than fighting Eggman.

Sonic didn't see Amy grow up though. The rare occasion he would wonder what she would be like...but gathering from the digital postcards her infatuation with him hadn't yet faded away. When would that girl just give up? Didn't matter now, probably had some boyfriend protecting her now. Life would be good.

The rest of the floors had their own hatches, as Sonic refocused himself towards his goal. He climbed each one, and none of them had any crew member about, being just as bad as previous levels. Eventually, he got the twentieth floor. Sighing with relief, Sonic could see the entrance to the lengthy bridge, which upon walking across, held windows to overlook the rows of Cryopods that were laid out below. The stench of stale and something sticky and mucky grew stronger, the air consistently dusty as the rest. The Ship's Bridge was behind a set of sliding doors, which need to a card scanned through the slot next to the big set of black and silver doors. There was a button above it, as Sonic kept pressing, a beeping noise sounded briefly, as Sonic tapped his foot as he waited.

No response forced Sonic to press it again. The pilot's couldn't be asleep could they? Tails had explained to him that there was a variety of pilots to take care in monthly shifts, usually in sets of two. Couldn't remember how many actual pilots there were, but even then, there had to be at least two awake right now. He pressed it a third time. Nothing. Sonic groaned. He looked around the room, finding another door. Looking up on the sign, it read 'Pilot Pods.'. Sonic shrugged, thinking it couldn't hurt to find someone.

The door slid open. There was a low lit red light hanging from the wall, the darkened hues of garnet spreading across the room on layered Cryopods. There were quite a few of them, mostly two sets of twelve set in each side in the long room, settled by more supply rooms and emergency pads.

Each of the Cryopods had names of the Pilots on a screen. Primitive programming of the old green letters on the black background, describing the status of the pilots inside. These Cryopods were slightly less in the technology, a hospital white in colour, not displaying whomever was inside it, unlike the passenger pods. He knocked on the closest one to him. Nothing. He knocked again. Then tried others but had no avail. Checking the monitors closer, something caught his eye. The third pair of pilots were apparently not inside, judging from the inscription of status: Unavailable. He was most likely one of them currently piloting. Checking the opposing pod indicated the same. But coincidence and instinct lead to checking the others...

Eventually finding all of their statuses as unavailable.

The hollowing wind ached the metallic muscles of the ship, causing it groan. Sonic scratched his head in puzzlement. Investigations across the board lead to finding a simple blue book, a journal as it may be. Sonic flicked through it, more of a less a diary of events of one of the pilots, Captain Brendan Dare. He took the book to a more of a normal, white-yellow globe that was setting beside a cupboard door.

* * *

><p><strong>September 24th, 24XX<strong>

This is my first day of proper piloting. It's going to be a long trip but there are twenty four of us, so I won't be alone all the time. It's taken years of study and making an experience out of the virtual simulations. I look forward to meeting my wife again, who was one of the first to make the trip there originally. She had sent me plenty of postcards in the long while.

I also heard Sonic the Hedgehog was coming on-board. I'm excited to be taking such a brilliant passenger. I'm a massive fan. I wonder where he and his friends are going? Scuttlebutt says they're going to see a friend. Really? Taking a two year trip to see this friend? Wow...dedication I say. Must be tight.

**February 13th, 25XX**

It's a pilots job for the first few months to ensure things are running as smoothly as they should. I met some of the others, some old, some young, some who had been piloting for many years and was one of the original flyers of the original ship, The Icarus, but claimed he had played a part of adviser of the other two, namely the Gentle Bundoora and the Courtesy Concorde. I believe he's come on board the Umbrane to check things out here. I tell you that man is a genius.

What I've been taught about the monthly cycles is that there are normally two of us piloting at a time. I was offered to do both Februarys for 25XX and 26XX. But it's okay, we're waking up at the end of September. My wife has sent me more postcards, saying every day is agony that she doesn't see me. She told me one of her friends have noticed a lack of medical care despite a lot of them being scientists, her being a biologists. A lot of them are getting incredibly sick and the doctors are really puzzled as to what it is. There are those who state it's most likely exposure to such an enviroment our bodies can't handle, that we simply don't have the resistance.

**February 13th, 26XX**

Another year has gone by so quickly! My body aches from being frozen for twelve months but I'll need another day to warm my body up. Doesn't matter, considering I'm going back to sleep until September.

More of a less, I'm more concerned about my Co-Pilot. He'd become increasingly paranoid as of late. We take 12 hour shifts, making sure that we stay with each other for six hours, then the other six hours of our own time we are asleep. Gotta ensure we're healthy to protect the passengers. The possibilites of encountering anything out here are enormous. The Co-Pilot had been speaking to that older, more experience pilot at some point, says he was worried about the sickness that had been going on on Levia, apparently for quite some time. I asked my wife about it on the postcard, but she has yet to reply. Poor girl, needs TLC.

**June 6th, 26XX**

I've woken up prematurely, by the older Pilot. Several pilots had gone missing during this time. I'm scared and just as paranoid as my Co-Pilot now, seeing why he was worried. I'm huddled with the others in this damned closet, writing my last vibes. There have been...sounds. Like the wind. The ship...I'm worried about her. And...this...smell. It's funny. Ever since we passed a kind of atmospheric cloud which I'm sure shouldn't even existence in space, considering what ever it was needed heat and oxygen to survive in the first place, is making it smell funny. More like rotten eggs, Yuck. Old man's gnawing on his jacket, his eyes hollow and...somewhat bony. Despite his trips he's only in his fifties but looks far older than he should be. Cryopods are supposed to halt aging completely, not proceed. I had suggested checking his pod but he swiped me down for being stupid. I'd activated a timed release protocol for one of the pods. I'd do all of them, but I'm afraid I might not have the time, so I just did Sonic's instead. He's survivor.

I have a feeling I'll die here. Sounds and smells of the odd sort are not normal. I'm writing my last phrases now. Honey, if I see you again, I hope our heavens are full of flowers.

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><p>Sonic closed the book and became worried, looking at the closet next to him. His heart started beating faster for a second as he continued to stare at it. Moments passed, as he wasn't sure if he should open the door or not. Brendan was right about the stench though. Tugging his gloves, Sonic went to reach for the knob. He wasn't sure if he was afraid or not, but gathered the strength to turn it, then pulled it open. He daren't not close his eyes, his brave subtlety in motion.<p>

Nothing.

Sonic took a deep breath of relief as he could only see a dark and dank cupboard. A slight reflection peeked at him as he looked down, seeing a rectangluar flat object with a diagonal cut on of the corners, with each corner themselves have a curve to them. It was a red with a black strip, and black and yellow diagonal stripes in a line. As Sonic picked it up he could read it as a security clearance card. He grasped it tight as he walked out to go to the scanner.

Sonic stood in front of the double sliding doors, then calmly approached the the swiper then slashed the card through the slot. The doors slid open slowly, waves of a green gas gushed out, forcing Sonic to cover his mouth with his hand, the source of the stench found. The gas soon cleared, so Sonic walked inside the briefly luminating room of the front bridge.

It was relatively large, with the front window shutters closed. No lights were on, save for the LEDs that lit up pieces of imporant wares. It was well rounded, like a semi-circle war room. The floor were made of tiles, formed from a steel-like alloy, and steps the lead to the large seats that overlooked outside. Sonic tried to find a switch as he looked around, unable to see much else.

"Hello? Pilots?"

No response. Sonic grumbled. He walked towards the chairs to see if they'd fallen asleep. He knocked on the chairs and turned, expecting to see someone, but ended up seeing nothing at all.

No one was flying the ship. Sonic's eyes widened at the prospect, forcing him to take a step back and carefully check his surroundings. Strange noises, squeaky yet mushy, like crawling and cackling bugs echoed throughout, Sonic's paranoid on the rise as his eyes were darting in all directions, taking a cautious stance in the meanwhile. One thing that brought his attention was a bright red flashing button on the control panel. He couldn't read what it said underneath, but had this anxious need to press it. Shrugging, he pressed it anyway, ramming his fist into it. Loud, machine noises sounded, as the shutters on the windows started to rise. A bright light slowly filled the room, almost blinding Sonic as it reached his vision, covering his eyes with his arm. As the shutters finally retracted fully, Sonic lowered his arm, trying to see what was out there. He walked out from around the control panel, approaching the window to see outside.

The bright light from was from the sun. He looked lower, seeing bits of vivid green and yellow, not to mention that the Umbrane had taken some damage from an apparent crash landing, with tall, odd looking trees that looked like they were a combination of pine and palm and were very tall, several knocked over due to the Umbranes landing. The sky was yellow, with clouds that streamed off in curls, with mountains in the distance.

"Well...looks like we're already here." Sonic said with sarcastic surprise.


End file.
